Zalman ZM500-RS Power Supply Review

Introduction

Zalman has recently released a power supply series based on a resonant switching (RS) design, aptly named RS series. Let’s see if the 500 W model from this series is a good buy.

Like other power supplies from Zalman, ZM500-RS is manufactured by FSP.

Figure 1: Zalman ZM500-RS power supply.

Figure 2: Zalman ZM500-RS power supply.

Zalman ZM500-RS is only 5 ½” (140 mm) deep, using a 120 mm fan on its bottom and active PFC circuit, of course.

All cables are protected by nylon sleevings, which come from inside the power supply housing. All cables measure 17 ¾” (45 cm) between the housing and the first connector on the cable, and 5 7/8” (15 cm) between connectors on cables with more than one connector. All wires are 18 AWG, which is the correct gauge to be used.

The cables included are:

Main motherboard cable with a 20/24-pin connector.

One cable with two ATX12V connectors that together form one EPS12V connector.

One auxiliary power cable for video cards with one six/eight-pin connector and one six-pin connector.

Two SATA power cables with two SATA power connectors each.

One peripheral power cable with two standard peripheral power plugs.

One peripheral power cable with two standard peripheral power plugs and one floppy disk drive power connector.

We didn’t like the cable configuration used on ZM500-RS very much. Although it will probably fit the needs of most users looking for a 500 W product, we’d prefer to see the two video card auxiliary power connectors using individual cables instead of being attached to the same cable and one more SATA/peripheral power connector on each cable, for a total of six connectors from each type instead of only four.

Gabriel Torres is a Brazilian best-selling ICT expert, with 24 books published. He started his online career in 1996, when he launched Clube do Hardware, which is one of the oldest and largest websites about technology in Brazil. He created Hardware Secrets in 1999 to expand his knowledge outside his home country.